Well, well, well, the market has changed once more, how bad will this be? I pity the younger people who have never seen a slightly less optimal market. They could be likely to believe all the hype, all the doom and gloom and just keep staring at their screens wondering which bit of sky will fall next.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not making light of the situation, from what I can understand, things do seem a little dire. But to quote the lion king, there is a circle of life, everything is cyclical. However with this crisis, the govenments seem intimately involved, forking out billion dollar buy out and securing deposits ets. Interest rates are actually dropping, which is great for you home owner. I cannot remember such tactics during the tech wreck or even in 1991 (which was aptly named "the recession we had to have in Australia"), where my parents tell me they were paying 17% interest on their mortgage. Kill me now!
I work in the IT world, a volatile/temperamental market, my world turns itself 180 ever other day, the line between making progress and regressing is completely blurred. Do we hire, do we not, do we go hard or do we consolidate. Is that plan actually working or will the executive change their mind once more in the rush to recession proof the company? Lots of questions, lots of issues... How does one move ahead in such times?

I am a simple man, what can I say. I can almost live by cliches, my philosophy is simple, deal with the things I have control over or at very least can inflence. DO those things brilliantly, then get those things you always wanted to do, but could never find the time (ensuring those things are extremely cost effective) and finally ensure that whatever you do is focussed on the one main point... VISIBLY ADDING VALUE TO YOUR COMPANY, ensuring your Recruiting function is viewed beyond purely getting warm bodies into the company, but being a key player in your organisations strategic goals for competitive advantage.

This can take many faces... Preparing for the upturn, it will happen, be prepared for it. Talent pool, visibly gather market intelligence and disseminate within your company, don't just keep it to youself. Take that step back youve always wanted to do, check out that forrest within the trees, take stock and improve your systems, go on, you deserve it. Updating your interview guides. Learn, webinars, talent shows etc, get further involved in something that you are passionate about in your job. Spend time on those stakeholder relationships we know are essential, but get neglected a little when the world goes into hectic overdrive. Take the time to breathe with your team, enjoy the feeling of not being consistently under workload pressure (this will be replaced by other pressure I assure you) and begin to map a way forward.

If none of this works, you can always fall back on coffee, that gets me through most things.

This will make you busy enough if done properly, I am working on delivering some of these ideals to my organisation and cannot wait to share the success of what we achieve in this period with everyone